The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[glakedylan]

amazing...simply amazing


well done!


sincerely
Gary

[DKS]

I placed the loco on the layout just to see if it was about the right size. Looks perfect.

[CRL]

Will it make the corner turns?

[DKS]

Will it make the corner turns?

Yep, no problem. That's why it's an 0-4-0 instead of anything with trucks.

[VonRyan]

I still have my T scale RDCs that I put into a baggie somewhere.

Did you ever make the ends for the roof? That’s the one place I’ve been struggling.

[learmoia]

I assumed that @Jesse6669 (correct that if I got it wrong) llwas the only T scale modeler left..  holding a Conrail Blue Flame of eternal fire in memory of what could have been..

[peteski]

After seeing DKS' fully functional (spinning and rotating) N scale table fan, I had no doubt he could come up with a a working kiddie-ride loco on T-gauge track.  As usual, very creative solution.

[DKS]

Lessons Learned from the Proof of Concept Model

The value of building a proof of concept model cannot be overstated. Had I intended this to be the "final" version, it would have failed miserably. I'll need to build another and, possibly, a third before I'd arrive at a finished model.

So, what did I learn from this little exercise? The most valuable lesson was that the design, in principle, was reasonably sound. But there were many shortcomings. First and foremost, accurate and durable bearings are a must. I'd thought that PC board material was hard enough to serve as a bearing surface for the needle-pointed worm. Yet, after just a few minutes of running, one bearing was already shot.

Wheel bearings would need a redesign as well: the ones I assembled from commercial parts were incapable of holding the wheels in place reliably. This was a function, I suspect, of the wheels being driven by a worm instead of a spur gear—the forces applied are quite different between the two.

Another problem came as quite a surprise: the motor would not stay put, despite being firmly bonded on two sides with CA; it was constantly breaking free. Additionally, the mechanism was quite noisy when running, which suggests the gears were not meshing properly. An adjustable motor mount would allow me to position the motor such that the gears meshed perfectly—a tall order considering a) the gear teeth are seriously small, meaning adjustment would have to be seriously precise, and b) there's virtually no room to spare.

The above problems, when combined, created so much friction that the mechanism would only function when the motor was powered at full voltage (3 volts). Consequently, it ran entirely too fast—assuming it ran at all.

Thus, at a minimum, version two would require the following modifications:

* brass needle bearings for the worm
* brass needle bearings for the wheels, preferably adjustable
* a mechanically solid yet adjustable motor mount

Another change I'm considering is replacing the thin PC board sides with brass. This would allow me to drill and tap the sides so as to attach adjustable parts, such as the wheel bearings and, possibly, the motor mount. Indeed, I'm thinking of replacing all glue-bonded joints with screw assemblies. That would involve quite a lot of drilling and tapping, but gluing is, in the end, the easy way out.

[muktown128]

@DKS - I'm constantly amazed at your sheer genius  with how you build things from bits and pieces, your willingness to share your insights and learnings, your offers of assistance in layout designs and your caricatures.  Thank you so much!

[CRL]

This assembly is probably too big for you to use directly, but maybe some of the gearbox components might be useful to you in some manner.

https://www.bananarobotics.com/shop/Mobility/Motors/Micro-Metal-Gear-Motor-1.5-12V-(298-to-1)

[garethashenden]

@DKS Do you have suitable bearings? I've got some from the 2mm Association that I could send you if you need them.

[DKS]

This assembly is probably too big for you to use directly, but maybe some of the gearbox components might be useful to you in some manner.

https://www.bananarobotics.com/shop/Mobility/Motors/Micro-Metal-Gear-Motor-1.5-12V-(298-to-1)

Thank you--I have a number of these already.

@DKS Do you have suitable bearings? I've got some from the 2mm Association that I could send you if you need them.

Yes, I do, thank you.

[Jesse6669]

I assumed that @Jesse6669 (correct that if I got it wrong) llwas the only T scale modeler left..  holding a Conrail Blue Flame of eternal fire in memory of what could have been..

Not wanting to encourage any thread-drift but there are a few of us still pushing forward in T ..it's slowly getting better.

[DKS]

This morning I wrapped up the open grid deck pony truss road bridge. For the color, I used two rattle-can spray paints: Valspar flat Tropical Rainforest and flat Gilded Pesto. The former is in the New York Central Jade Green family; the latter is a pale yellow-green that gave the jade a "fade" and knocked the brilliance back. Since the model represents a well-maintained bridge, I resisted the urge to hit it with a heavy rust wash.



I fabricated the guard rails separately from the bridge, using scraps of lattice and strip styrene, then painted them. I also painted the grid deck material (Scale Scenics aluminum micro-mesh, #652-3500) the green mix, then masked it with tubing so the edges wouldn't be sharp, and lightly sprayed it with ruddy metal primer. Everything had to be done lightly and gently because the mesh is very delicate and easily plugged with excess paint. Finally, I attached the grid decking (a tiny dab of CA at each corner) and guard rails to the bridge assembly to finish the model.

[Dave V]

Wow, Dave, I feel like I've already driven over that bridge somewhere back East at some point.  That looks perfectly on-point.